Seeking Cressi Rondine fin timeline info

[DaleC]

Just picked up these Cressi Rondine Professional fins with a Healthways logo and was wondering if anyone had info or a link to a timeline for them. I have found info about some Rondines on the net but no references to the professional series. I'm very happy because they are in great shape, supple rubber, no cracks and they fit!

 

[knowone]

Da fin Man!


http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/sn...ubs-rondine-l-fins-their-modern-replicas.html


from tha mutha country

 

[regulator bj]

The Cressi Rondine(Swallow)fin was patented by the Italian Luigi Ferraro finding his war time underwater attacks with fins that were very hard on the feet of the diver. He worked for Cressi after the war who maufactured the very comfortable design In 1962 Luigi Ferraro founded his own company in Genoa "Technisub" I am in debt to Gaetano Nini Cafiero of HDS Italy

 

[regulator bj]

The Italian Luigi Ferraro found the early fins were very hard on the divers feet during his war time attacks which were classified as secret weapons so after the war when he was working for the "Cressi" company took out a patent for the "Rondine (swallow) design which proved kinder to the feet.In 1962 Luigi went on to form the Italian company "Technisub". I am in debt to Gaetano Nini Cafiero of the Historical Diving Society Italy for these facts.

 

[DaleC]

Thanks so far. I made an error and called these Cressi Rondine "Professional" but they are in fact Cressi Rondine"Competition" fins. Any idea when this particular version came out or why a Healthways logo is on them?

 

[simonbeans]

Dale
You know this link, I hope:
https://backup.filesanywhere.com/fs/Link.aspx

 

[regulator bj]

Heathways have the "Rondine compertion" fins in their 1964 catalogue with the "Cressi" logo.The "Healthways" tag was added in 1968. Hope this helps

 

[DaleC]

Thanks Alan and bj. Don't know why (head slap) but I looked at the filesanywhere for Cressi but not Healthways. Now I have a direction to go in.

 

[regulator bj]

Rondine fins

Have found two adds of intrest the Cressi letter is 1955 and the fin ad is dated 1960 earlier than first thought.

 

[David Wilson]

The Italian Luigi Ferraro found the early fins were very hard on the divers feet during his war time attacks which were classified as secret weapons so after the war when he was working for the "Cressi" company took out a patent for the "Rondine (swallow) design which proved kinder to the feet.In 1962 Luigi went on to form the Italian company "Technisub". I am in debt to Gaetano Nini Cafiero of the Historical Diving Society Italy for these facts.

I hadn't heard that explanation before for the birth of full-foot fins in general and Cressi Rondines in particular. Thank you.

I can't say much about Healthways Cressi Rondines, but it's true to say that the Cressi Rondine design has been endlessly copied over the decades, right down to the swallow embossed on the foot pocket and blade. When I joined my university scuba club in the mid-1960s, I purchased my first "professional fins", which were Typhoon Cressi Rondines, also bearing the swallow image. They were so comfortable for snorkelling that I resolved never to revert to open-heel fins and I still, forty years later, go snorkelling in the North Sea in a pair of all-rubber full-foots. It's sad that Cressi no longer makes full-foot fins from natural rubber nowadays, having jumped on to the thermoplastics bandwagon a while ago like most other European scuba gear manufacturers. Only Oceanways of America and Glaros of Greece are left in the all-rubber Cressi Rondine business.

Luigi Ferraro did indeed come up with the original Cressi Rondine fins in the late 1940s, I believe. More information on the Luigi Ferraro website at
Rondine Fins | Luigi Ferraro
I've read somewhere that the prototype was made from car-tyre rubber, as raw materials were hard to come by in the postwar period. It's worth browsing through Ferraro's website, it's full of interesting information about this very versatile man.